Kieran Culkin says he'll punch Nicholas Braun 'in the balls' if Succession costar beats him for Emmy

The actor is nominated against two of his Succession costars for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Succession
Photo: Peter Kramer/HBO; Zach Dilgard/HBO

Kieran Culkin has lit up the small screen over the past couple years playing dissolute and generally disgraceful media company executive Roman Roy on the HBO drama Succession. But when we called Culkin earlier today to speak with him about being nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series the actor made clear that he is currently living a very domestic lifestyle.

"My wife and I are raising a small baby in the apartment that I moved into as a single guy when I was nineteen," Culkin tells EW. "The baby has the bedroom, I sleep on the floor. Nothing makes sense. Like, nothing makes sense in this reality. If we leave the house, there’s a pandemic. If we're in the house, it doesn’t make sense. Nothing makes sense. So, when this [nomination] comes in, and it’s like, 'How does it feel?' — I don’t know! I've got to try to feed beets to my baby. I don’t know. I have no idea."

So, being a newly-minted Emmy nominee doesn't help Culkin being let off chores, even for just the day?

"No," says the actor. "Because my wife takes the early morning shift [with the baby], then we tag out, so my wife can like have lunch and do her thing, and I start at like 11:30, which was when the nominations were announced. So, I walked in, and said, 'Oh, I was nominated.' She goes, 'Yeah, I heard, can I make my sandwich?' I said, 'Yeah.' And so she made sandwich while I play with the baby and then she goes and has her alone time. I feed the baby, I bathe the baby, and now here I am doing phone interviews. So, no, nothing is different."

Culkin does admit he was aware that two of his costars — Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun — have been nominated in the same category.

"I know that there's two others in the show," he says. "It’s me and Matthew and Nick in this category. Yeah. It’s kind of nuts. I’m going to have to kick Nick Braun in the balls if he beats me that’s all."

Fair enough.

"I should say 'punch,'" Culkin adds. "I don’t think I can get my foot that high. But I can punch."

The actor says he planned on spending a quiet date night at home with his wife this evening. But how would his Succession character Roman celebrate a similar nomination?

"If Roman was nominated for an Emmy?" Culkin says, with a laugh. "I think he would think he totally deserved it, even though he’s not involved in any category to get one. I don’t know. He’d probably, like, jerk off on a window or something."

More seriously, the actor revealed that, because of the coronavirus, he has no idea when, or where, filming might start on season 3 of Succession.

"No, all rumors, all hearsay," he says. "I don’t know anything about the season. I don’t know how many episodes, what kind of story it is. [There are] rumors about when we’re going to start shooting and where but nothing is concrete. We’re going to get back whenever it’s safe."

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